The meeting was held at the Fringewood Community Centre in Stittsville. The following people were present:

Name Call Sign Position MH Grid RAC WCARC
Andrew Hart VE3NVK Member FN25bh Yes Yes
Bertrand Zauhar VE2ZAZ Secretary FN25bk Yes Yes
Remi De Cristofaro VA3DRI Member FN25bh Yes Yes
Lawrence Dobranski VA3IQ Member FN25 Yes Yes
Peter Jago VA3PJ Member FN25ag Yes Yes
Robert Boyd VE3BE Treasurer FN25dj Yes Yes
John Vandermey VA3RLC Member FN15xd Yes Yes
Jeremy Jones VA3ZTF Vice President FN25ac Yes Yes
Luc Pernot VE3JGL Member FN25ek Yes Yes
Glenn MacDonell VE3XRA Member FN25dj Yes Yes
Wayne Getchell VE3CZO Director FN25dh Yes Yes
Clare Fowler VE3NPC Member FN25dj Yes Yes
Steven Harrison VE3FTS Member   Yes Yes
Harrie Jones VE3HYS Visitor   Yes  
Karen Bryden   Visitor      
Charles MacDonald   Visitor      

Opening

The meeting was opened by the Vice President, Jeremy (VA3ZTF) at 19:02. Three visitors were in attendance: Harrie Jones (VE3HYS), Karen Bryden and Charles MacDonald. The Vice President (Jeremy) informed of Doug Leach’s (VE3XK) passing. Doug had been a long time WCARC member, and a club officer for several terms. His involvement in amateur radio spanned much wider than in our Club. A condolences card was sent to Doug’s widow. The Club will send flowers or a wreath. No details on the funeral service are available at this point. These will be communicated to the members via the email group when they are known. A minute of silence was observed in memory of Doug.

Secretary’s Report

Bert (VE2ZAZ) presented the minutes of the December meeting as submitted by former Secretary, Randy (VE3AX). Minutes will be posted on the website after this meeting. Moved by the Secretary that the minutes be adopted as shown on-screen. Seconded by Robert (VE3BE). The motion was carried.

Treasurer’s Report

Robert (VE3BE) reported 16 paid up members for 2020, and a bank balance of $1369.91. There is also $2,000 which is split up into two term deposits. These will be maturing in 2020, one in April and the other in October.

Vice President’s Report

Jeremy (VA3ZTF) showed the current 2020 meeting speaker schedule. There are open spots in October and November. Members are invited to prepare a presentation to fill in these spots.

Director’s Report

Wayne (VE3CZO) is working on clarifying the non-profit organization status of WCARC, with the objective of getting better rental fees from the City of Ottawa. The Club has had an Ontario non-profit number since 1980. Obtaining a non-profit organization status from the Canada Revenue Agency is a much more complex, more costly process; it would require the filing of a T2 income tax form on a yearly basis. Wayne believes the Ontario non-profit number should be sufficient for the city to recognize that we are a non-profit organization. Wayne will request an electronic copy of our Ontario form (a $10 charge).

President’s Report

Nil. The president’s position is open.

Speaker

Steven Harrison gave a presentation on the Renfrew/Almonte Amateur Radio Emergency Services.

Old Business

Bert (VE2ZAZ): The topic of the Club email group transition from Yahoo! Groups to Groups.io had been discussed before. Bert suggested that we proceed with the transfer to Groups.io. It was understood by all that we would lose the history of emails currently available on Yahoo! Groups website. This should not represent an issue since everyone received individual emails anyway. Bert will contact Clayton (VE3IRR) and will proceed with a manual transfer.

Harrie (VE3HYS): It was previously been mentioned that the VE3OCR-4 digipeater (formerly VE3WCC-1, donated to OARC in 2017) had been relocated to the Camp Fortune tower site, and that the WCARC website shows that. The digipeater is currently located at the CFRA transmitter site, and is operational. It has been there for approximately 4 years. The WCARC website should be updated to show this current location. Jeremy (VA3ZTF) will advise Clayton (VE3IRR) to make that change to the website.

Reports / Project Updates

Beacons

No report.

D-STAR

No report.

Broadband Hamnet

It was reported that the new building erected West of the YMCA building is blocking access to the Y’s BBHN nodes for some users. Also, Rick (VE3CVG) is planning a visit in the upcoming weeks to fix a few issues with the BBHN nodes, one being the loss of back end connectivity of the westbound node with the rest of the local network.

New Business

As a result of Doug (VE3XK)’s passing, Robert (VE3BE) and Andy (VE3NVK) offered to take over as representatives to look after the beacons. They will need to recover Doug’s key to the observatory door. Mrs. Boltwood (the property owner) agreed to carry on hosting the beacons despite Doug’s passing.

Vice President: In the following months, the officers will work on retrieving the WCARC-owned equipment from Doug’s place. Discussions are ongoing on this topic. We will inform the members at upcoming meetings.

Election of President

The election of president was deferred to the next meeting, as nobody came forward to fill the position.

Announcements / Show & Tell

Lawrence (VE3IQ): A five-week long ham licence course will be offered every Saturday at Carleton University. Details are not known.

Harrie (VE3HYS): The Canadian Ski Marathon is looking for volunteers for point-to-point communications (non-ham) activity (though ham radio may be used as backup). In preparation for the Marathon, a kit assembly group session of a $30 2m band attenuator kit will be held. A registration sheet was circulated during the meeting.

Glenn (VE3XRA): WRC-2019 ended. Reports are available in the TCA magazine. The perception was that there will be more pressure for microwave band re-allocation at the next WRC-2023. We should occupy our bands.

Glenn (VE3XRA): Involved in “Amateur Radio aboard International Space Station” (ARISS) group. Some of the activities will involve convincing NASA to put ham radio equipment onboard the future moon “Gateway” station.

Glenn (VE3XRA): RAC is planning to provide website hosting services to affiliated clubs in 2020.

Adjournment

The President observed that there being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 21:00.